Be Happy
by YourRegularNerd
Summary: Because we all know they make each other happy...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there, ready for a little Castle two-shots? Well, you better be. Actually, this story was meant to be a random funny one-shot, but it got a little more emotional than expected and there we are. I had to separate it in two. So, if you like the ending of the first part, just stop reading there. If not, the second part is a short scene between Ryan and Esposito, which is more humorous. **

**There no real spoilers in this story, but there's a little nod to _Kill Shot_** **(which is a great episode, right?). I know that the case is pretty random, it just popped into my head like that. *pop* And I hope that Kate is not too OOC in the beginning...**

**English is not my first language, sorry if there's any mistakes... :/**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, or anything that you might recognize. **

**Hope you'll enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Be Happy<strong>

Kate stormed out of the interrogation room, violently slamming the door behind her. It startled Ryan and Esposito who were working at their respective desks. They both nearly had a heart attack. Getting over their emotions, they looked curiously at the scene unfolding in front of them. Kate walked to the whiteboard and began to move the photos in all directions and to write furiously everywhere she could. When she saw that her marker was running out of ink, she shook it and ended up throwing it on the floor as hard as she could. She groaned. Everyone in the room was staring at her for a few seconds but apparently she couldn't care less. Ryan and Esposito looked at each other, torn between laughing or running to shelter.

"Yo, Beck-" Esposito said cautiously.

"What?" she snapped. She turned around so that everyone could see the fire burning in her eyes. Esposito made a backward step.

"Um… What about uh, Dreadlocks over there?" he said, referring to her latest interview in the interrogation room.

"Wouldn't talk." Her eyes wandered again over the surface of the board. She played nervously with her fingers, then with her dad's watch. She sighed. "Nobody talks in this investigation. It's been five days."

"So, back to square one again?" Ryan joined in.

"I guess so."

Esposito looked around. "Where's Castle? Haven't seen him since last night."

"I don't know," Kate spat, and her face hardened. "I guess the murder of a Bob Marley fan isn't interesting enough for Mr. Best-Selling Author." There was no more doubt about it. Detective Katherine Beckett was _pissed_.

Esposito immediately understood. "Okay, I know what's going on… What happened between you two?"

"Nothing. Really." Seeing that she wasn't very convincing, she continued. "I swear. I'm just having a really bad day, and this investigation is going nowhere. Nothing to do with anyone."

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other, smiling. They were definitely not buying it.

"Nah, you're mad 'cause he didn't show up. C'mon Beckett, don't lie to us!"

"What? That's not-"

The noise of the elevator rang into the room. All heads turned to the familiar silhouette, slaloming between the desks and the officers with his cups of coffee.

"Hey guys! Sorry I was with Alexis, but I just realized something and…"

Castle stopped dead in his track. Kate looked like she was about to murder someone, and the two other detectives had a little idea of who it would be. Without saying a word, Castle held out a coffee cup to Kate. She almost snatched it from his hand. Taking a long sip, she finally relaxed a bit. But the tension kept building up until it became unbearable.

"We're going to search for things that…uh, you know, we might have missed," Ryan said, uncomfortable. He pointed their desks. "Financials and stuff."

Esposito walked past Castle and mumbled into his ear. "You should have seen what she did to that marker. Watch out, bro."

Castle watched as Ryan and Esposito sat silently to their desks. He gulped without exactly knowing why. Kate didn't even move. Her eyes were still focused on the board.

"So…" he trailed off. He didn't even know what he apparently did to make her this _pissed_! He squeezed his eyes shut, ready to receive anything. A slap, a punch, a marker… Anything.

She looked at him for the first time. She sighed again. "We're stuck." Kate placed a strand of hair behind her ear. There was still anger in her voice, but there was something else. Something that sounded like… _despair_? "If you have a wild theory or something, just go ahead. Nothing left to lose." She took another sip from her coffee.

Castle sighed from the relief. He put his cup on the nearest desk, smirking. "Actually, I have something even better. Do you remember the guy we interviewed last night?"

"Yeah, um… The victim's friend, the one he met on that Bob Marley forum. Alex Wyatt."

"Exactly. I've been thinking… He told us that his favorite Bob Marley song is _Don't Worry Be Happy_." Castle wore a horrified look. "I can't believe we let that one go unnoticed!"

Kate frowned. She sat on the desk in front of the board "What are you talking about, Castle?"

He scoffed. "_Don't Worry Be Happy_, that's not even a Bob Marley song! It was sung by Bobby McFerrin, way after the King of Reggae's death!" He paused, for the suspense. "Our guy is an impostor!"

Kate raised an eyebrow, glaring at her partner. She thought about what he had just said for a few seconds. And actually… "Well, I must admit… A Bob Marley fan worthy of the name would have known that for sure." And actually, she was maybe beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Especially a fan that subscribes to a forum like that. Unless…"

Kate got up. She put her coffee next to Castle's and grabbed another marker. She removed the cap and wrote the name of the suspect under his picture. "Our victim, Marcus, had over a hundred thousand dollars worth of Bob Marley merchandise. Some of those things alone were rare and worth a fortune. Alex Wyatt knew about Marcus' collection. He told us that he would take care of all this stuff."

"That was suspicious."

Something that looked like a smile appeared on her face. She was once again completely oblivious to the stares of everyone else in the bullpen, including those from Ryan and Esposito. "So, Alex isn't a Bob Marley fan, but he somehow learns about the collection and he wants to know more about it."

"He subscribes to that forum, finds Marcus, chit-chats, and then…"

"He ends up killing him, planning to get the collection to sell it. Easy money." Kate bit her lip. "Okay, so… The story isn't perfect, but we've got a motive. We need to get Alex here."

"We're on it," Esposito called out before preparing to leave with Ryan.

Kate exhaled, her smile growing a little wider. Her eyes met Castle's. His blue eyes were shining, and she wondered if she'd ever get tired of staring into them, or just to see that look he had whenever they developed a theory together.

That was one of those things she could never tell anyone about.

"What did you say about us being stuck, Detective?" He said, wearing his most charming smile.

Kate looked away. She was blushing slightly. She placed the same strand of hair back behind her ear, fully aware that it was to gain time to reply. "I, uh…" She swallowed her pride. "I really thought that this was going nowhere. I mean, a song? The key to solve this case?"

"Not any song!"

"How so?"

"The lyrics are pure words of wisdom!" He grew closer to her. "_In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double,_" he murmured, quoting the song.

A genuine smile flashed on Kate's face but there was a hint of sadness that could be seen in her eyes. Castle was still smiling but he saw that she had something else on her mind and just waited for her to open up. Which she did almost immediately.

"Castle, that's..." She sighed. "My mother used to tell me that whenever I came home from a crappy day. She said it was from a song she liked. Sometimes those words would frustrate me even more, but most of the time it would just make me smile." She paused and her smile disappeared. "She kept telling me not to worry and just be happy. No one told me that since back then. Now I'm just… worrying."

Castle didn't know what to tell her, but he still managed to say something. It was the story of his life. "You shouldn't. You deserve to be happy, Kate."

That conversation began to sound awfully familiar to Kate. However, there was no way that it would end up the way it ended up the last time. "I know, I want to, but…" She looked down. "It's difficult."

"I know."

Kate chuckled. "Back then I didn't always care for what my parents had to say. Especially for those life lessons my mother would repeat over and over again. It's just with hindsight that I realized that… She was right. Maybe I should start listening to her." She laughed. Castle laughed too, not because it was necessarily funny, but only because it felt so good to hear Kate laugh.

"She was a wise woman." He said with a crooked smile. He was sincere.

"She would have liked you," Kate admitted, also sincere. "I'd have you meet her for sure. And while you'd be away, she'd probably tell me-" She stopped herself, looking a little disturbed. She frowned. "Uh, you don't want to know what she'd tell me."

"Why?" Castle teased. "Because it would be too… _shocking_?"

"Not really."

"Awkward?"

"That's more like it." Kate took a few seconds to think about it. About what she felt, about what she had been through. She thought about _those things_, the things she couldn't say or the things she didn't know how to say. She thought about happiness, how she was supposed to find it. How she needed to find it.

She just thought about happiness. And love.

She looked into his blue eyes. She felt the melancholy return. "My mother would want me to be happy. I have to be happy. I want to, really… But after all these years, I don't know if I can."

Castle put his right hand on her shoulder. He kept looking into her eyes. After all that she had been through, he just wanted to take her pain away. Though, after hearing what she had just told him, he felt like he was one step closer to being able to truly do so.

"You can." He replied softly. "Be happy, Kate. You deserve it."

A sad smile appeared on her face. She moved a little closer to her partner. "Thank you, Castle. For everything."

And his obvious answer to that was :

"Always."


	2. Chapter 2

**Ha, so you decided to keep going? Well, I hope you'll enjoy this part!**

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><p>Being stuck in traffic was an everyday thing when you lived in New York City. But that didn't mean that you couldn't be annoyed by all those precious minutes wasted, bumper to bumper, trapped in the snow in the middle of that urban jungle. Esposito sighed. He let go of the steering wheel, aware that they were going to be stuck there for a pretty long time. Their suspect would have time to run away a thousand times. Ryan and Esposito were sitting in a comfortable silence since they got in the car. The police radio was turned on but it was only a background sound by then, such as the heating. Silence reigned, and it was fine for both detectives. That is, until a few minutes later, as Esposito finally said something.<p>

"I knew it."

Ryan looked at his partner, a little confused by his sudden statement. "What?"

"I totally _knew_ it." He repeated.

"You knew what?"

"_Don't Worry Be Happy_, that's not a Bob Marley song!"

"You knew it?"

"Of course I knew it!"

"You sure?"

"Duh, so obvious!"

"Oh yeah? Obvious, huh? Well, I definitely knew it too. Even more than you.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, really."

"You knew?"

"Yeah, of course I knew."

"Then how come you didn't say anything?"

"Would have been wrong."

"Why?"

Ryan stared at Esposito in disbelief. "Well, you saw that look Beckett had on her face when Castle told her that! She looked like she was about to kiss the guy!"

"Yeah, right."

"Would have been wrong if it had been one of us."

"Sure. Would have been like kissing our sister."

"Exactly. That's why I didn't say it. By the way, it was also for Castle…"

"To make him shine."

"Exactly."

There was a pause, during which Ryan and Esposito shared a knowing look.

"He makes her happy," Esposito said after a while.

"Of course. They make each other happy."

"We simply didn't want to get into their little chemistry, into their little… moment of magic."

"Right." Ryan paused. He then chuckled. "That's totally what we're going to say to Beckett if she asks us why we didn't know that _Don't Worry Be Happy _isn't a Bob Marley song."

"Yeah, and we'll have Castle thank us eventually."

"Besides… Think about it, this would make one hell of a good story to tell during their wedding reception!"

Esposito almost chocked in surprise. "Their wedding? Bro, I think you're overreacting to all those magazines Jenny makes you read."

"No, no, this is just how things will unfold, I'm telling you. It's, like, written in the sky! Imagine us, making a toast to the newlyweds and be able to say that we are a little bit responsible for their happiness because of all those sacrifices we made..."

Esposito laughed. "Seriously, bro? Their wedding?" Then, his face fell serious again. He looked at Ryan, and he presented him his fist so they can fist bump. "Challenge accepted."

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><p><strong>By the way, I think Ryan and Esposito are two of the biggest Caskett shippers... Just sayin'. <strong>

**Thank you for reading! Reviews are appreciated! :D**


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